Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – November 2020

Welcome to November 2020 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

We first pay our tributes to Soumitra Chatterjee who passed away on 15-11-2020 and Sean Connery who passed away on 31-10-2020.

Phenomenon called Soumitra – In Mrinal Sen’s Akash Kusum, Soumitra Chatterjee plays an ambitious middle-class executive, who is losing everything he values because of one bad decision. The Hindi remake Manzil starred Amitabh Bachchan, but a back-to-back viewing of both these films will tell you how nuanced Chatterjee’s turn as Ajoy was.

Soumitra Chatterjee and Aparna Dasgupta in Akash Kusum. (Express archive photo)

Soumitra Chatterjee dies at 85 – Sandipan Deb – Soumitra Chatterjee was an actor who never appeared in a Bollywood film, in spite of lucrative offers. He received Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2012

My friend, Soumitra Chatterjee – Sharmila Tagore on Soumitra Chatterjee: The basis of our friendship was his persona, his values, just the inimitable way he was. There was so much to learn from him, he leaves behind a rich legacy.

Satish Acharya pays tribute to veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee, and his iconic partnership with legendary director Satyajit Ray, with who he worked in 14 films together.

Bidding Adieu to a Colossus – The man who was such a huge part of Ray’s cinema won his national honours for films he did with other directors

Soumitra Chatterjee – A Habit of Our Lives – Amitava Nag attempts at an objective tribute to the magnificence of a true legend

More to read

Soumitra Chatterjee (1935-2020): A pictorial tribute to the legendary actor

Shaken. And Stirred. When Connery walked away from his character after Diamonds are Forever, and Roger Moore took over the mantle, fans were dismayed, as ‘Bond’ became less dark and dangerous, and more humorous and light-hearted. [My notes: I, too, belong to the category of “bond’ films who stopped seeing these films thereafter.]

Dusted Off also takes looks at Sean Connery beyond his James Bond image while reviewing The Hill (1965).

We pick up other tributes and memories:

It’s 100 years of the egg-headed detective who stole our hearts – Sandipan Deb [ My notes: Agatha Christie has a very forgettable connection in the form of Gumanm (1965) , which was adapted from her And Then There Was None.]

Mughals Engulf Bollywood – D P Rangan, on 158th Remembrances Day of Bahadurshah Zafar, takes a look across influence of Mughal influence over Hindi Cinema and songs.

Kamal Barot – a forgotten voice is a rare, tribute to one of the very talented singers of Hindi Cinema on her 82^nd birthday. The post covers her solos, NFSes and of course MF and FF duets, triads and traiads+

In Hum Dono, lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi turns melodrama into a meditation on love, war & life – Starring Dev Anand in a double role, along with Sadhana and Nanda, Hum Don is film takes on the classic lookalike trope, set against the backdrop of World War 2.

The Divas: Zeenat Aman – she may not be as much of an actress as the others, but it was always a pleasure to see ‘Zeenie Baby’ on screen. She had chutzpah, and serious ‘actress’ or not, she marched to her own drummer, setting the screen on fire while doing so.

In continuation of the Hemant Kumar Centenary celebrations, Hemant Kumar’s solo songs under ‘other’ batons presents Hemant Kumar as a playback singer under direction of music directors over Hemant Kumar’s career from 1951 to 1972.

Aakrosh, Om Puri’s masterclass in the art of silence, is especially powerful after Hathras – Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri and Smita Patil star in Govind Nihalani’s 1980 directorial debut that explores caste politics and the oppression of Adivasis.

Shailendra Sharma @ Golden Era of Bollywood has posted following memorial tribute posts:

November 2020 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Salil Chowdhury and Shailendra’s Songs Fading From the Memory: 1957. Till now we have covered the years

1953-1955 in 2018, and

1956 in 2019.

We will now take up the articles on other subjects:

How Sai Paranjpye found the ‘eccentric, lovable and unforgettable characters’ for her comedy ‘Katha’ – Sai Paranjpye – Edited excerpts from the renowned filmmaker’s memoir – A Patchwork Quilt – A Collage of My Creative Life, Publisher: HarperCollins India.– reveal the making of the 1982 classic

In book on early Indian cinema, a look at the romance and risk that went into filmmaking – Rudradeep Bhattacharjee – Debashree Mukherjee’s ‘Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City’ studies the transition from silent films to the talkies.

Ten of my favourite wind instrument songs expands over previous list of string instrument songs and percussion instruments to enlist the songs wherein the singer on the screen plays a wind instrument.

Female Dance Duets – Part 1 and Part 2, and Part III are now further followed by Part IV (Public performance other than stage dance) and Part V (FF duet dance songs not placed in any foure previous parts)..

In the Micro View of Songs of 1945 we have carried forward the micro view of solo songs of Female singers – now in the form of Amirbai Karnataki – Part 1 and Part 2; Mohantara Talpade | Rajkumari | Hamida Bano and Zeenat Begum. SoY has concluded the review of duets in Best songs of 1945: Wrap Up 3. Aahein na bharin, shikwe na kiye kuchh bhi na zubaan se kaam liya, Badariya baras gayi us paar and Rani khol de apne dwar, milne ka din aa gaya emerge as the joint winners for the year 1945.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, each one of which basically has a link with the topics discussed in the present post. Presently, we remember a few Sahir Ludhianvi’s Mohammad Rafi songs –

Hum Jab Chale To Ye Jahan Jhoome – Hum Hindustani (1960) – Usha Khanna

KahiN Qaraar Na Ho Aur KahiN Khushi Na Mile – Chandi Ki Deewar (1964) – N Dutta

Sun Ae Mehzabeen Mujhe Tujhse Ishq Nahin – Dooj Ka Chand (1964) – Roshan

Kya Miliye Aise Logon Se – Izzat (1968) – Laxmikant Pyarelal

Door Reh Kar Na Karo Baat Kareeb Aa Jao – Amaanat (1975) – Ravi

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.

Author: ASHOK M VAISHNAV

In July 2011, I opted to retire from my active career as a practicing management professional. In the 38 years that I pursued this career, I had opportunity to work in diverse capacities, in small-to-medium-to-large engineering companies. Whether I was setting up Greenfield projects or Brownfield projects, nurturing the new start-ups or accelerating the stabilized unit to a next phase growth, I had many more occasions to take the paths uncharted. The life then was so challenging! One of the biggest casualty in that phase was my disregards towards my hobbies - Be with The Family, Enjoy Music form Films of 1940s to mid-1970s period, write on whatever I liked to read, pursue amateur photography and indulge in solving the chess problems. So I commenced my Second Innings to focus on this area of my life as the primary occupation. At the end of four years, I am now quite a regular blogger. I have been able to build a few very strong pen-relationships. I maintain contact with 38-years of my First Innings as freelance trainer and process facilitator. And yet, The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. View all posts by ASHOK M VAISHNAV